Access to health care - The extent to which care is available for a patient.

Activity - What projects do with resources to achieve their intended objectives and outcomes.

Advocacy - Taking part in efforts to create or effect change in policies or systems. Advocacy efforts can take many forms, including education, media, direct action, and lobbying. Funding from the Healthier Wisconsin Partnership Program may not be used for lobbying to attempt to influence any local, state or federal legislation or administrative action.

AHW - Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin is an endowment of the Medical College of Wisconsin committed to improving the health of Wisconsin residents.

Allowable Expenses - Funds can only be used for direct project-related expenses. Examples of eligible expenses include:

salary and benefits for personnel directly involved in the project. In addition to key professional personnel, this would also include clerical or other administrative support that is specifically designated to the project; and,

Best Practices - Strategies, programs, and initiatives that have been formally evaluated and documented as consistently producing positive, desired results, but have not yet been shown to be effective through repeated testing. “Promising Practices” are strategies, programs, and initiatives that have been effective in one context and have the potential for producing positive, measureable results if replicated in other contexts. Also see “Evidence-Based Practices”.

Capacity - The organizational structure, management and staff skills, technical resources, and operating methods of an organization that determine its ability to solve problems, create and sustain services and programs, and generate resources and support.

Community Needs Assessment - Documented findings that indicate the needs of the target population of a project, as opposed to the needs of the applicant organization. Conducting a community needs assessment may include consulting with members of the public, community organizations, service providers, and local government officials to identify and prioritize community health and health care needs.

Community Partner - Projects may be comprised of a variety of community organizations across sectors. However, each project must have a minimum of one eligible community partner, defined as a non-profit, 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization or a government organization, including:

Direct Service – Health care services supplied to individuals regardless of insurance or financial ability to pay for services.

Dissemination - To share, replicate or market principles, ideas, or lessons learned for continued growth and health improvement.

Document Review – A measurement strategy used to produce qualitative or quantitative data. By examining documents that are already in existence, document review can be useful as a relatively inexpensive and unobtrusive means for gathering background or contextual information. This strategy can also be useful as a means to document program implementation.

Evaluation Plan - A plan that describes how the processes and outcomes of a project will be assessed. The evaluation plan should follow the items in the project workplan. Also see "outcome."

Evidence-Based Practices - Public health practices whose effectiveness has been confirmed by research or expert consensus, consistently shown in several research studies, to assist stakeholders in achieving desired goals in health and wellness.

Fiscal Agent - A tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) organization that serves as the financial agent for an applicant organization, if that service is necessary. A fiscal agent agrees to accept and be responsible for grant monies, including all financial record keeping and reporting. The fiscal agent of an applicant organization is accountable to HWPP for the financial outcomes of the grant. The applicant organization remains responsible for the programmatic outcomes of the project.

Focus Group – A measurement strategy used to collect qualitative data. By following a structured set of open-ended questions, focus groups can be useful for gathering a range of perspectives on a particular topic. Focus groups are generally comprised of six to twelve individuals who share some common characteristic.

Goal – A goal is a broad statement that describes the overall intended impact of a project or program.

Health Disparities - Health disparities represent differences in health status or health outcomes among or between specific population groups.

HWPP - Healthier Wisconsin Partnership Program is a component of the AHW endowment fund at the Medical College of Wisconsin. The vision for the Healthier Wisconsin Partnership Program is to improve the health of the people of Wisconsin. The program supports community-MCW partnerships that address public and community health improvement.

HWPP Project Number - An identification number assigned to each project by HWPP following the acceptance of a project Letter of Intent.

Income - The amount of money received over a period of time either as payment for work, goods, or services, or as profit or capital.

Indicator - The observable, measurable characteristic or change that represents achievement of the outcome.

Indirect Expense – A cost that is not directly connected with the project, ex. depreciation on a building or equipment, facility security costs, costs related to proposal preparation.

In-Kind Support - A contribution of equipment / materials, time, and / or services that the donor has placed a monetary value on for project purposes.

Inputs – Resources, contributions, investments that go into the program.

Interview (or Key Informant Interview) – A measurement strategy used to collect qualitative data. By asking selected stakeholders a set of structured, open-ended questions, interviews can be useful for collecting rich descriptive data from people with first-hand knowledge about the topic.

IRB - The Medical College of Wisconsin Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) are responsible for review and approval of all MCW research activities involving human subjects. The purpose of this review is to ensure that the rights and welfare of the subjects are adequately protected and that all research involving human subjects is in compliance with applicable MCW policies and external regulations.

Leveraged Funds - Monies to be received from sources other than HWPP, if those monies are dependent upon receiving a grant from HWPP. Leveraged funds should be identified in the project budget.

Lobbying – Any attempt to influence local, state or federal legislation or administrative action including providing information on MCW research or HWPP projects. Costs associated with lobbying efforts not allowable with HWPP funding include: lobbying to attempt to influence specific legislation.

MCW Consortium - A nine-member oversight committee that oversees the Healthier Wisconsin Partnership Program. The committee, known as the MCW Consortium on Public and Community Health, serves as the board of directors of HWPP. In addition to oversight responsibility for HWPP, the MCW Consortium also serves in an advisory capacity for endowment funds allocated to research and education at MCW.

MCW Partner (also referred to as the MCW academic partner) - Eligible MCW academic partners include: full-time, part-time or full-professional effort status MCW faculty members (considered eligible MCW Principal Investigators - PI); and, full-time MCW academic staff with a minimum of a Master’s Degree in public health or a related field and relevant experience working with communities. The staff person may serve as the Primary MCW Academic Partner; however, an eligible MCW PI must approve the MCW staff person’s participation and provide oversight of this staff person throughout the lifecycle of the award. Additional MCW academic partners may be involved in a range of activities dependent on the project design and partnership structure. Additional MCW partners may include other faculty, staff and students from multiple MCW departments.

Observation – A measurement strategy used to collect qualitative data. By witnessing and documenting details about events, behaviors, or situations, observation can be useful for gathering contextual information or to document adherence to procedures in practice.

Outcomes - The changes in (or benefits achieved by) clients, groups, communities, organizations or systems due to their participation in program activities. This may include changes to knowledge, skills, values, behavior, capacity or condition of health status.

Outputs – The activities, services, events and products that reach people who participate or who are targeted.

Primary Community Partner – Primary Partners will serve as the access points for purposes of administrative coordination with HWPP. One community partner primary contact, representing all community partners, must be identified.

Primary MCW Academic Partner - Primary Partners will serve as the access points for purposes of administrative coordination with HWPP. One MCW academic partner primary contact, representing all MCW partners, must be identified. This individual must be an eligible MCW academic partner.

Project - A planned undertaking or organized set of services designed to achieve specific outcomes that begins and ends within the grant period. (A successful project may become an ongoing program or be a component of a larger program.)

Public Health - The State of Wisconsin Office of the Commissioner of Insurance defines public health as "population health, rather than population medicine, focused on the broader determinants of health in communities, such as prevention efforts to promote healthy life styles for women, children and families; disease prevention and control; and control of environmental agents that negatively impact health."

Qualitative Data – Information that is non-numerical or descriptive in nature. Qualitative data is used to describe qualities of things.

Quantitative Data – Information that is numerical in nature. Quantitative data is used to describe quantities of things.

Questionnaire – A measurement strategy used to collect qualitative and/ or quantitative data. By using a set questions which can be administered using a variety of methods (e.g., face-to-face, via telephone, self-administered, electronically, etc.), questionnaires can be useful for efficiently gathering data from both large and small samples of respondents.

Stakeholder - A person or group with a direct interest, involvement, or investment in the project.

Supplanting - Supplanting means to take the place of and serve as a substitute for other funds The Insurance Commissioner's Order prohibits any funds from being awarded that will supplant funds or resources otherwise available to applicants from other sources for the proposed project. Therefore, for supplanting of other resources to occur, funds expended would need to replace other funds available to the applicant for the proposed project.

Sustainability - The ability of the health improvement outcomes of a project to continue beyond the HWPP grant period without further HWPP funding. This may involve changes to policies, locating new sources of funding, working to improve reimbursement systems, and/or integrating the work of the project into broader public health initiatives. All HWPP applicants are expected to be actively planning for sustainability, and all grantees are expected to begin implementing sustainability activities early in the grant period.

Wisconsin State Health Plan - Healthiest Wisconsin 2020: Everyone Living Better, Longer is the Wisconsin state health plan for the decade 2010- 2020. The publication of a state health plan is a statutory (s.250.07, Wis. Stats.) (exit DHS) requirement of the Department of Health Services. The state health plan defines the new vision for the public health system in Wisconsin and has specific targeted outcomes.